Do we really want to be masochists?

Now that the holiday party is over, lets all look back and examine what all that revelry has cost the Filipino most especially during New Year’s eve with all the fireworks and indiscriminate gun firing in the air that we can’t seem to do without. Year after year, we hear the same appeals and warnings about the dangers of using fireworks particularly the so-called “illegal” types that are practically as dangerous as IEDs (improvised explosive devices), but we just keep doing it anyway.

The result: Hundreds of injured people including children who face the prospect of spending their lives without arms or legs or an eye gone blind because they were a second too late in throwing away that Pla-pla or Judas Belt or whatever it is they call those deadly crackers – or worse, because they got hit by a stray bullet. The sad part is that most casualties are innocent children who were just watching the revelries or simply asleep inside their homes.

The air pollution levels in Metro Manila also went off the charts – 13 times beyond the safe level set by the World Health Organization with the worst air quality registered in Marikina, Las Piñas, Quezon City and Navotas a few hours after New Year – all attributed to the overenthusiastic use of fireworks that also left unsightly garbage on the streets, on rooftops and even on the hoods of vehicles. 

People who saw the smog hovering over Antipolo – shown on TV just hours after the New Year countdown – couldn’t help but cringe because the gray atmosphere looked like a sinister dark blanket of death – an apt description since air pollution is acknowledged as the culprit for many respiratory/lung-related illnesses, heart problems and even cancer that ultimately lead to premature deaths.  The bad air quality is also exacerbated at this time due to the cold weather when the air is heavy and dense, compounded by the traffic aggravating the situation because of the toxic carbon emissions coming from idling engines. The United Nations has confirmed that vehicles are the biggest source of pollution, posing the greatest threat to global climate change. 

And what do we hear from a government official about the situation? A nitwit who said traffic and congestion are signs of progress. Clearly this idiot is deluded and clueless about the kind of suffering and misery that people go through almost everyday due to the worsening traffic. In fact, some groups have described the holidays in Metro Manila as “Black Christmas” due to the black smoke coming from vehicles stalled in traffic during the Christmas rush.

One of those stuck in a 12-hour traffic due to delays at the tollgates the day after Christmas was Senate President Franklin Drilon who was on his way to Baguio – and now he wants to have this matter about the NLEX, SCTEX, TPLEX and “all other TEXs” having separate collection systems investigated by the Senate.

Not much investigation is needed because the simple solution would be to integrate the North Luzon Expressway and the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway to make travel faster and more efficient for motorists who will not have to stop at these tollgates every now and then – something that was already proposed by the Manila North Tollways Corp. in 2009, but for some reason is still unimplemented until now despite the BCDA’s repeated avowals of support for the proposal. BCDA president Arnel Casanova keeps saying they will implement the proposed integration “soonest” but we have been told – this has been “five years in the making.”

What do we have all these laws for? They’re supposedly against indiscriminate firing, against air pollution, against the manufacture of illegal or banned firecrackers and there are even local ordinances that impose firecracker bans – but the implementation of these laws has been totally inutile. Worse, lawbreakers have been literally and figuratively getting away with murder. Take for instance the case of Nicole Ella, the seven-year-old girl who was killed by a stray bullet during New Year’s Eve in 2013. To this day, the PNP has not been able to identify the gunman because the firearm is reportedly loose. Even if the firearm was registered, it would still be difficult for the PNP to pinpoint a match for the slug using their ballistics records. No wonder the number of indiscriminate firing cases keeps getting higher as the PNP itself admitted.

As for the manufacture of banned firecrackers, we’ve been receiving reports that some licensed manufacturers are reportedly the ones manufacturing them because they sell better than the tame “luces” or the mild “kwitis” or “bawang.”  There is a move to ban the sale of firecrackers entirely – but let’s not hold our breath about this.

The practical solution would be to impose life imprisonment for those found guilty of indiscriminate firing, most especially if they belong to the PNP or the military – with outright dismissal from the service. The same goes for illegal firecracker manufacturers, particularly those who also violate child labor laws by employing children – who are not only underpaid but whose lives are also placed at risk due to accidents.

Let’s face the truth – it really takes political will and public cooperation to implement what is needed in solving the traffic problem that keeps bedeviling commuters and motorists, and of course the air pollution that puts the general public health at high risk. In the end, there is really no progress but retrogression in the country – all because we all seem be masochists – making life in the city a living hell.

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